We are what is currently called in the US, a “multi-racial
family.” In our New York lives, we don’t
really give it much thought. And while race
does come up at times, such as when Oscar explained to us that he has to
approve all Asian jokes among his peers (gotta love teenage boys), white/Asian
families really don’t attract any particular attention where we live. But what is commonplace in the US is often extraordinary
in other countries.
Outside of the US, people still tend to associate “American”
with “white.” So we often get questions
from people asking about our family.
It’s been interesting to compare the reactions we have gotten from
people in different countries. Because
we all have a sense of how we each look a bit different in racial terms, we
have a bit of a game that we play when we go to a new place about who could
pass for Ecuadorian/Chilean/Peruvian/etc.
And it’s worth pointing out that South America is actually pretty
diverse – there are some Asians and Jews and tons of multi-racial people in
every country in South America, so really any one of us could be from any one
of the places we’ve been. Granted, Ruby
looks really Chilean, and I can seamlessly pass for an Argentine. But what makes us stand out as foreigners is
the combination of all four of us together.
 |
| Brazilian Mom and Daughter? |
Interestingly, it is only in Brazil where we seem to fit
right in. Relative to other places,
Brazil seems particularly diverse, both in terms of the people, as well as in
terms of the number of multi-racial families we see. And it’s really been the only place where
people we meet casually (taxis, restaurants, etc.) seem initially surprised
that we aren’t Brazilian. Until they
hear our Portuguese…
No comments:
Post a Comment